Saturday, September 27, 2008

Affiliate Marketing: Establishing a Relationship

By Gibson Maseko

The point here is that you have to express to your prospects that you look on them as real people and not as like a bunch of receipts in your cash register. Make them feel that they are important in the business; it is sincerity that matters in conducting business with them.

Some points in establishing a relationship in your prospect

Always remember that first impressions last. You need to impress your potential client and promote your program in a way that he will grab it.

You can offer forums to have a dialogue with your prospects. Be courteous in answering all their queries, as much as possible in a positive tone. Remember that you are presenting the real you both on and off the web, so better make the best of it.

It is a little bit harder to sell online. The correspondence that is available between you and your prospect is through e-mails and occasional phone calls. Again, be courteous. Make friendly responses. You can also incorporate in your responses something a little more personal. Tell him that you are enjoying the snowfall while answering his e-mail or you just got back from a vacation.

If you have made that good impression and an initial sale, the connection must not stop there. After a week, for instance, send him a personal note of thanks for the opportunity of conducting business with them.

Affiliate marketing is full of surprises. Follow the aforementioned starting elements and pointers and start your affiliate career by hitting a gold mine.

Let affiliate marketing move for your business

Affiliate marketing is the affiliation connecting website owners and merchants whereby the merchant offers the website owner a commission fee arrangement for connecting to the merchant's site to offer goods or services for sale.

Affiliate marketing is now a popular method of promoting web businesses. The affiliate is being rewarded for every visitor, subscriber or costumer provided through his efforts. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying finders-fee for the introduction of new clients to a business.

The affiliate publishes websites so they are also known as publishers and merchants advertise on affiliate sites, so they are also called advertisers.

Affiliate marketers, utilizes several networks. They evaluate new networks and individual programs. Merchants who are considering adding an affiliate strategy to their online sales channel should research the different technological solutions available to them. Some types of affiliate management solutions are standalone software, hosted services, shopping carts with affiliate features and third party affiliate networks.

In the cost per lead (CPL), a visitor referred by the affiliate completes a form on the merchant's website and in the cost per one thousand impressions (CPM). Merchants pay a set rate for the display of one thousand of their banner or advertisement.

In the early days of affiliate marketing, many internet users held negative opinions due to the tendency of affiliates to use spam to promote the programs in which they were enrolled. As affiliate marketing has matured, many affiliate merchants have refined their terms and conditions to prohibit affiliates from spamming.

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